by our visitors in this city. so we have to keep it beautiful, we have to keep it updated and informative. we have great partners that have known over many decades that this is the heart of our business, tourism, the hotels, some of the greatest hotels in the world are here in san francisco and they will be welcoming all the people that come from 55 days of sailing. event after event find it's way to san francisco, the bay area because they know we know how to host this. i want to welcome bob from our chamber of commerce because he's learning very quickly how wonderful this place is. [ applause ] and how we do things and how we do things successfully is to identify or challenge and get really bright creative minds

like joe, and you start working with union square and you discover and help everybody be successful and you find john, who gets this going. you get all of these discoveries like people in the city like john, who has been there year after year operateing the whole convention visitor center and you start to putting things together and more each year things get better and better. when you see success, there is so many examples of our success in working together and cooperating together that you get a whole hotel group of owners together and they are paying for an expansion of the convention center. that's going to make us world class competitors with places because

of the size. so they know how to get things done and know that our city is much acknowledging that this is the most important employment center, the tourism center for the city, it continues to be, we have natural beauty but we also have beauty because we all work together to get that great experience going and for this center to be refurbished, technology wise, space wise and adding things like made in san francisco. i have to say that because for me i got to talk about san francisco in ireland, in paris, i'm going to talk about it beginning tomorrow night the day after when i arrive in beijing that we are really on our way to kind of manufacturing beautiful wonderful things that people can take with them that they are looking for all the time. i got those inquiries. what are

you making in san francisco, the middle class in china, they have money to spend, they are investing all over the world. i want them to invest here along with the other 400,000 visitors that come through here and take the advantage of the exposure and what everybody associated with the movement here. we can have more of the products, more of the accessories, more of the things that they want to have as memories, but also make on going connections with us. i want to thank all the volunteers that are working here because, you know, you do it for the love of the city. if the visitors who speak multiple different languages walk in and they don't get a smile from a volunteer, earning a lot of money, they are not going to

spend money and not feel appreciated. we all know in this industry, it's not just the smile we care about, this is why we need to invest in looking at this future of the holiday plaza, working with webcor, we are working to try to redesign even better i improvements here and you see the space in the highest level of appreciation for the city. i want to emphasize it would not happen without everybody reaching out to each other, with n the city, stake holders, in our small businesses, the hotels and successful areas of our city and say let's work together for an even more improved vision of what we can

do for our visitors. that is going to enhance everything, that is what turns one visit into 5 visits with the same person. it turns someone who comes by themselves and then they bring their families or they meet up with friends here in san francisco. and this is what it's all about. this is what i care about and i know that i will continue to try to do the things that the mayor's office that support this effort, talking about it, quoting the statistics to the supervisors and they know that visitors is at the heart and all the way to market street. pretty soon, i'm not supposed to announce these things, but i would like to announce things that are not finalized yet because they get people excited about what else people want to do. market street is going to

get free wifi by the end of this year. i assure you of that. because the companies of at&t are saying gosh, look at what we are doing on market street. let's get free wifi going on the plazas and all the way so that we honor people's investment and honor all of the work they are doing to recreate and reestablish market street greatest street in san francisco and then we'll work on many of the other corridors that also want our attention and as joe has done with travel to reignite for all the people to visit and experience and do different things. this year is going to be incredible year. the exploratorium opens next month, the america's cup, the giants are back for another

great season and then you have in addition to all of that you have the latest, the bay lights. the incredible innovative [spelling?] spirit that it causes. how can you do that, to put led lights and you get incredible mastery of technology to go with art. these are the things we do to celebrate. i love this city more and more even though we are working our toe nails down to make it better, you turn and see it's really worth it because everyone loves this city and you know we all appreciate it. thank you for working together, thank you for going beyond the boundaries and thank you for reaching out to each other and asking for help and solutions. so that we don't

take the person on the sidewalk and say we have a problem and we have a problem. we do something about it. we are working with everybody to make things better. we have partners, they are showing up on market street. 3300 residential units being constructed, and we have venture capitalist. we need more. this is a big way of saying thanks to everybody for working together. another great center here and we are going to make sure this center flowers with all the other plans that we have. thank you for working together. >> thank you. for your

leadership today. today i was with the representative for the football league and they are looking at the site for football. they said i haven't seen this many cranes in american city for such a long time. it's very exciting. and mayor, i wasn't able to join you in court, but i will join you to our most important city and that is our sister in italy. thanks again for your leadership and in taking this city to a new direction and preserving it's past and celebrating it's presence and making sure it's future is as strong. let's give mayor another round of applause. [ applause ] so now i would like to clues to -- introduce you to my other boss, the board share of the traveling association and the board share of the improvement

district and the square, david maeld man. >> thank you joe, thank you mayor lee for all of your support, and your leadership. it's such a great time to be in san francisco. tourism is just coming and that's due to your efforts and your administration's efforts. thank you very much. san francisco travel. as joe mentioned, i kind of wear three hats but i'm standing in the middle of my world. union square improvement districts and tremendous work that they are doing down here, joe dell sandero with travel and of course due to mayor lee's efforts it's a time for

tourism and general manager in this city. thank you. visitors information center. it was a freudian slip because it improved tremendously and it couldn't be in greater location. so all the visitors that come to san francisco from the airport stop right there and come here for information on things to do in the city. it's tremendous for me to be the general manager because i have concierge but the volunteers and the people here are an extension of concierge and giving information for all the visitors that come in and make this a world class city and really visit all the areas, the restaurants, the attractions and everything else

this city has to offer. i want to thank again san francisco travel because they are the ones who market tourism, no. 1 industry in san francisco and again i want to thank you. i want to thank the volunteers. as mayor lee has said, you are the ones that truly breathe live into this city. and you give out information with just such authentic and hospitality to all the visitors around the world. they go back and tell their friends and tell them to come to one of the best cities in the world, san francisco. thank you. [ applause ] >> in conclusion, a couple things. we have a little game we are playing here that we encourage you to do it. we talk about our staff and volunteer that wear a yellow ribbon that say staff on them. go ahead and

meet them. write their names on the piece of paper. put it in the silver bucket and you have the opportunity to win -- some prices. these volunteers speak italian, hindu, french, mandarin, portuguese, spanish, tagalog and vietnamese. they are the ones that really help. a couple things i want to point out, the main changes here. when you walked in here you bumped into a bunch of brochures. the real experts are not the brochures but the staff and volunteers who share their information and passion. we put the brochures against the wall and brought the volunteers and staff to the middle. when the people came and they needed to understand what was the heart and soul of the city to meet

the geniuses, they found in front and middle. that was an important change. we don't always have a dj out here. many times we have volunteers and staff. another feature we are proud of is technology. we have touch screens. we have sf made products, we'll have more in the future as we continue. we have these the wonderful maps back here. the one of san francisco and it's neighborhood and the one of california. it amazing how many volunteers want to get in front of this map and discuss what they remember about san francisco. we encourage you to spread the word and thank you for your partnership. thanks for coming tonight. enjoy the rest of the reception. thank you. [ applause ] [ applause ]

>> good morning. i want is start by that thanking mayor lee for starting first. there are two stories today, the one you read about in the papers today, the deal and the process. the deal, the transaction i believe is a win win for the city of san francisco and for the medical center and the center health system. by the name, my name is

gerardo. this agreement ruts results in a significantly larger hospital. 120 beds. a significantly smaller hospital. 255 beds. saint luke's hospital will be 25 of all the cpmc. it will continue to provide the level of care with no financial conditions or projections and i think we have solved what was an issue and initiated on the side of the hospital. over and

above the on going care obligation of the hospital. the agreement is $90 million for cash benefit and others related to health care, affordable housing and pedestrian safety. that's an overview of the deal and you will hear, i'm going to be to make some acknowledgements an those that negotiated the contract, the development agreement as to specifics. the process was one that i came into with somewhat or some bit of trepdation. i have been involved and know what i know from the board of supervisors from what i read in the newspapers. i was concerned about what it would be like to

work with these young people who are responsible for the legislative function of our government. i also realized that by san francisco definition that i was dealing with supervisors of three different levels, left, middle and right. and i need to say today that i have never been so impressed in my life by politicians to watch them come together as one and to develop a strategy along with a hospital team for the common good. [ applause ] >> we developed together a process that was transparent. the members of the board of

supervisors and the members of the team were able to see all the numbers, budgets, projections and brought in expertise to verify those numbers were real number. we got educated together. we politicized together and then we built trust. i'm not saying it's perfect trust, but we built trust. so i would like to single out david chu, david campos and mark ferrel for the great job they did. [ applause ] >> the mayor's office in particular a great deal of debt. he did a great job. i

just don't know who i'm going to talk at midnight anymore. [ laughter ] . i also want to thank people from the department of public health and others from the mayor's office. but colleen chav an and wagner were instrumental in helping us understand the projections and understand the construction cost, etc. i would also want to acknowledge the hospital team, mike, warn browner. ceo of cpmc, [ applause ] george, i want to say is it w u. and john gates creative cfo who works at the hospital and

the chairman of the board mr. bob -- [ applause ] . throughout this process, i had the luxury of a number of people helping and counseling me and encouraging me, but i would like to particularly thank bishop mark andrews who has been a tremendous supporter of saint lukes. and last but not least, i want to thank the san francisco coalition. we, as part of our process had meetings with the coalition in my office, their executive committee that varied from 10-13 in size from meeting to meeting and also their liaison mr. mark kumar who kept

everyone a price apprised of what we were doing. i know that san francisco is still a city that knows how and wants the city to work and cares about each other. congratulations to san francisco. i want to introduce our fine mayor ed lee. [ applause ] . >> thank you. i yelled out wife and family to make sure that there was a way in which to acknowledge the tremendous sacrifice that lou gerardo has given. when you see construction workers, you know something big is going to happen. it has in the same level of excitement that i have seen in the rebuilding of general hospital and the uc

medical center. every time we touch our health care system, we have something that promises a better life for people and barbara is as excited for this announcements as well. saint luke's are incredible institutions for san francisco. that's why we thought it would be best for the whole city to make this project happen because of the laws of the state of california that require that seismic upgrade of our health institutions, because of the tremendous pressure to improve san francisco and bay area and the economical structures that face this hospital and so many other hospitals. the job is never

done. this is an announcement of where we are today, but we have to get this thing built, we have to make sure it's furnished like we are working on to make sure everything happens at a time when there is economic pressure and institutions coming from national decision that don't necessarily compliment the economic recovery that we are experiencing in the bay area. so, i want to put this into perspective for one great acknowledgment that i want to make is that this was not easy to do. lou's assignment here and i don't know why he took this up because it really accounted for hundreds of hours of his time to keep everybody at the table , but it is an acknowledgment that i want to make to thank the board

president chu, and supervisor ferrel. each and everyone of them to say this would not have gotten done without their direct involvement. yes, i started some of the things and i was excited a year ago when we thought we had and agreement but realizing the hospital and this hospital reconfirmed for the future was important. we didn't have that agreement a year-and-a-half go and we had to put together a process to make it happen these three supervisors came together and they essentially made it happen with the support of ken rich and others and public health and so many others. lou's penetration, his workability, i have to say, when they got close and i heard they got close, i had to go down and get

that clam chowder and sour dough bread to assure myself that it was happening in our city. it takes strong personalities, it takes incredible amount of effort to depoliticized these issues. by the way, when you hear the real stories and they will probably come out, somebody will leak something, there was more than one time where everybody felt justified in walking away and i'm glad they found reasons to come back because these are important for our city and the needs of this area. it would not have been done without the board of supervisors and gaining the insight lou was

creating for us. i would like to let the supervisor speak to what their passion was in keeping their focus together on it, but to say to you that it's an incredible time for the city. these are major health care institutions that we have. this will lead to hundreds of jobs for the city, permanent, long-term jobs, but ultimately, it will be another great brick in the whole health we have to share in this effort to do so and i'm so happy not only the do this but acknowledge the importance of our board having direction conversations engaged in this effort. thank you lou,

barbara and everybody else in making this happen. let's go forward with this effort and make sure that the path is clear and again, i want to thank sutter, cpmc for their leadership because they are making another incredible investment in san francisco and this is now honor ed with this agreement. it's sensitive and everyone wonders what will occur to them for going forward. we make a great leap of faith of going forward as a family and i want to have this opportunity to reassure everybody. thank you. [ applause ] . >> thank you, mayor lee. i'm going to introduce 5 people that will say a few word and also to let you know the members of the board and mayor will be available to you for

questions, not from the podium, but with everybody that is here today. i would first like to introduce supervisor mark ferrel and to say that mark has been instrumental in every way towards bringing us to this point in our efforts and i would like to say that i think that mark is a great peace maker and has served us, this city well in this process. so i introduce to you supervisor mark ferrel. [ applause ] thank you lou and thank you all for being here today. today truly is a great day for the city of san francisco. we are proud to announce an agreement with cpmc that will bring two new hospitals